714 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Oct, 2, 1920. 



Insects found on Tobacco in 

 New South Wales* 



W. W. FROGGATT, F.L.S., Government Entomologist. 



While investigating the damage caused to the tobacco crop by infestation 

 by thrips, the writer collected a number of minor pests. Several of these, 

 under favourable climatic conditions, might easily occasion serious loss. 



In North America quite a number of moth caterpillars infest and damage 

 the tobacco leaf, among the most formidable of these being the large 

 handsome caterpillars of the hawk moths Frotoparce Carolina and F. coleus^ 

 popularly known in the United States as horn or tobacco worms, and where 

 these caterpillars are numerous it is often necessary to spray the tobacco 

 plant three or four times in the season with arsenate of lead. The bud moths 

 {Heliothis retrexice and H. armigera), the latter common in Australia as the 

 maize-cob moth, also damage the growing tobacco crop, gnawing both the buds 

 and seed pods. The only moth caterpillar noticed by the writer in his recent 

 examination of local crops was a rich green-coloured cutworm, which, though 

 it pupated, did not develop into the moth ; but if these were numerous they 

 could do a great deal of harm to the leaf. 



Tobacco and Potato Moth {Phthorimoia operculella). 



This destructive little moth has a world-wide reputation as a potato pest. 

 The moth lays her eggs in the eye of the tubers, into which the active little 

 grubs burrow and feed. It is better known to economic entomologists under 

 the name of Lita solanella ; but as it has been proved that it had been 

 previously described under the name of Gdechia operculella, the former name 

 has become a synonym ; and it has now been further removed from both by the 

 older genera, under which it had been in turn placed. This pest is known 

 to the tobacco-growers in the United States under the name of " tobacco 

 splitworm," from the habit of the larva of feeding in the midrib of the leaf. 



The potato moth was first recorded as a tobacco pest in Australia by OllifF, 

 in his "Entomological Notes," in this journal, vol. iii, p. 701 (1892). The 

 writer in question bred it out of tobocco leaves growing at Tamworth. Some 

 experiments were carried out at that time, but since then this moth has been 

 quite lost sight of as a tobacco pest until the present season. As a potato 

 pest it was described by the present writer in this journal, vol. xiv, p. 321 

 (1903), in an article supplemented with a fine coloured plate, giving the 

 different stages of its^life history. 



During his recent investigations into the damage caused to tobacco by 

 thri[)S, the writer's attention was drawn to the manner in which many of the 

 stems close to the ground and the base of the large leafstalks were being 

 attacked by a small moth caterpillar. Examination of the old seed-beds, 



